Но главное в том, что абстрагироваться от оригиналов, слушая The Postmarks, довольно легко – каждая песня обретает новое звучание и новую инкарнацию. По меткому выражению Кристофера Молла, The Postmarks “стремятся делать песни, которые звучат так, как будто они были всегда и всегда будут существовать”. Ничего не добавишь.[/lang_ru][lang_en]It’s been a long long while since I got such a warm feeling inside from music. The last time music sounded so comforting was, probably, back in 2003 when I first listened to Donna Regina’s “Late,” and sometime even earlier when it was Towa Tei and Fantastic Plastic Machine time for me… Warmth – not just around you, but getting inside, to the bottom of your heart, this instant feeling that everything is going to be fine, coming from nowhere, from these notes – this is what makes me listen over and over again to this album by the Florida-based The Postmarks.

It’s funny that The Postmarks’ sophomore album, By-The-Numbers is an album of cover versions. All of them (well, almost all) are sung by the Tel-Aviv born girl with a boyish name Time Yehezkely Jonathan Wilkis and Christopher Moll, the other two band members, had previously been in Stereolab-fan band See Venus. So, this can probably explain the un-Americanness sound of their music. The range of the songs selected for the album is pretty wide: the sweetest “One Note Samba” by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Blondie’s “11:59,” Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Nine Million Rainy Days,” Ramones’ “7-11,” Bob Marley’s (!) “Three Little Birds,” The Cure’s “Six Different Ways” and even “You Only Live Twice” by Nancy Sinatra (James Bond theme). And the final chord is “Pinball Number Count,” from the good old Sesame Street, now lost for the younger generations in gigabytes of South Park, Spongebob Squarepants and the like.

But the main thing is that it’s pretty easy to forget that you’re actually listening to cover versions. Each song gets its own new sound and soul. As Christopher Moll put it, The Postmarks “aim to produce songs that sound like they’ve always existed and always will exist”. Nothing to add.[/lang_en]